Private investigators feeling the heat

private-investigators-in-coventry

It’s that time of year again private investigators in Coventry, Warwickshire, West Midlands and nationwide are currently feeling the heat.

We’ve all been told about the dangers of leaving a dog in a car on a hot day with no ventilation, well spare a thought for the surveillance operative who has to endure long hours sometimes static covertly monitoring an address and the sun is beating down on his vehicle with him within. This is one of the first scenario’s I point out to people that think it’s a glamorous job.

This year at last we appear to have had a decent summer but there’s one breed of people that do not enjoy the heat and that is us.

Recently we were tasked with carrying out a surveillance, the client required a private investigator in Coventry to watch a house as part of a co-habitation investigation to prove who was residing at the address. On this particular case as the Subject was not in any sort of employment and spent lots of time at home loafing around, we had to put the address under all day surveillance to evidence the Subject arriving and leaving.

The morning started fine as it was overcast but by 10.00 am the sun had burnt through the clouds and breathing its heat all over the surveillance operatives car. Sweat was pouring and lots of fluids were consumed throughout the day.

A few days later and a client called with the need for services of a private investigator in Solihull with a similar scenario and similar result.

So next time you are driving along with your aircon on or outside basking in the sun, spare a thought for that surveillance operative gasping for breath hidden away in his vehicle.

Oh well, it won’t be long until all private detectives in Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond will be sat in their cars shivering their teeth together, but that’s for a different blog.

September 2016

False Sickness Investigations

False Sickness investigations

M.R. Investigations specialists in False Sickness Investigations.

False sickness investigations

We are regularly called upon to perform surveillance on employees for a number of reasons. Most commonly it’s to find out if an employee is really as sick as they make out. People taking unnecessary time off from work claiming to be sick when they are not, costs companies in the UK millions each year and if you are running a business this will be costing you money in sick pay and having to employ someone to do the work of the person claiming to be sick. This is where we can help. I can honestly say that nine times out of ten when a client has become suspicious of one their employees sickness claims and employed us to place them under surveillance, the clients suspicion has been proved to be correct.

Above is an image taken a few years ago now when M.R.Investigations surveillance team were asked to carry out a surveillance in Coventry. The Subject of enquiry, had been off sick for a number of weeks
claiming to be suffering from an injury at work. Not only was he raking in the sickness pay but he was also going to make a substantial claim against his employers. We found that not only was he attending a college twice a week to learn how to be a plumber, on the other three days of the week he was actually working as a plumber and what we had unearthed was his new business venture getting off the ground.

When faced with our overwhelming evidence, which consisted of many hours of video and stills as well as a full written report, the employee handed in his resignation and his claim against the company was withdrawn.

In the image below the person we were watching was claiming long term sick pay and compensation for a work related back injury. As we were following him he happened across two young lads outside a warehouse unit in difficulty with a fork lift truck.

Being the helpful chap that he was and himself an experienced fork lift driver he offered to help and certainly put his back into it!

false sickness investigations coventry

False sickness investigations in Coventry & Warwickshire

We carry out false sickness investigations throughout Coventry, Warwickshire, West Midlands and beyond.

False sickness investigations Coventry
Absenteeism investigations Coventry

Is your investigator really where he says he is?

Local agency?

There are numerous things to consider when choosing a private investigator. The first thing you should consider is if your investigation agency is really local?.

Is the private investigation agency local to you? For example lets say you typed in your google search, “Private investigators Coventry“. You are met with a page full of web pages with agencies matching your search string right? Wrong! many agencies build websites to cover every large City and town in the country, even going as far as to give the website a domain name with the relevant city in it’s name and advertising blurb spelling out that they offer services in the City you specified. What happens here is you dial the number, some chap in say, Bristol for example will answer, you will tell him your problem and probably reel off road names that he has never heard of and he will say he will get his team on to the job right away. He will then sub contract the job out to to the lowest bidder someone local to the area. So what is wrong with that? The job gets done by a local team anyway you may say.

The problem with that is it is no longer personal. When we take on a job we personally feel obliged to make sure that the job is done professionally, by people we know ie Ourselves! when it is sub contracted out it’s in the hands of the gods what happens. The people carrying out the work are not known to you so they don’t feel any sort of loyalty to you, they will be being paid a lower rate whilst the chap you spoke to on the phone takes the difference in his pocket for doing virtually nothing. Remember the old adage, pay peanuts, get monkeys!

Doing a search for private investigators in my city throws up with all the main results and all the sponsored results about 20 different agencies, out of that 20 only 2 are really based here, Fact! When we take on a task your problem becomes our problem and we endeavour to see it through to a successful conclusion as we will have a professional loyalty to you. Take great care before you employ anyone, make sure you scrutinise their website for tell tale signs that they are not based where they say they are.

Time to get affiliated ?

Private Investigation associations

Over the last year I had toyed with the idea of joining one of the UK Private Investigation bodies. I was not sure which one to join.

It’s a fact that most PI’s in the UK do not belong to any associations and I had been one of them for a fair few years. Most of my colleagues however, were members of one or more associations. When asked if I was a member of either of the main associations for the UK I used to reply “no” and found after some time that I felt a sense of shame in saying no. I felt like a bit of a fake, not that anyone ever made me feel this way, it’s just something I felt myself. After all having membership of some trade association is the norm for a plumber or an electrician so why should it be any different for a PI?

So I decided I wanted to get affiliated with one of the associations. I spoke to people who were members of these associations and weighed up the pros and the cons of both organisations. I listened to what got up the members noses about their memberships and what they got out of it and which one gave them the most from joining that particular association. Having listened for some time and hearing the same reports I decided to apply for membership to the ABI, I passed an on line exam and was called before an examining board who fired question after question at me and really raked me over the coals. The questions were to make sure that I knew the aspects of the PI industry and that I knew how to do it legally.

Grilling over and I was told that I had met the criteria and was accepted as a full member. So far I have got a lot out of the membership, I have been passed jobs that would have never come my way, had I not been a member. I go to regular meetings and meet new people in the industry and kept up to date about new legislation etc. I also now have new people that if I don’t know the answer all I have to do is call and help will be given. I now have a logo that I can proudly display on any correspondence letters or emails and glad that I made the move and joined the association.